Engadget RSS Feedhttp://www.engadget.com
Engadgethttp://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gifEngadgethttp://www.engadget.com
en-usCopyright 2015 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/18/pixels-trailer/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/18/pixels-trailer/http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/18/pixels-trailer/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget#comments

Pixels is a live-action movie about an alien-controlled cadre of classic video game characters wreaking havoc upon humanity by turning everything they touch into, well, pixels. It's based on the charming 2010 short by the same name that Sony thought would make a great feature-length movie starring Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) and Paul Blart (Kevin James). A mulleted Peter Dinklage is along for the ride too, in what looks like a less challenging role than his voice work in Destiny was. His character bears more than a passing resemblance to Dog the Bounty Hunter, because sure why not? At one point, Pac-Man's creator Toru Iwatani (played by Denis Akiyama) gets his hand chomped off by the big yellow guy himself. And just when I thought it couldn't get any more stupid, out came trite "homages" to iconic scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kindand Independence Day. All this to say: The movie looks absolutely abhorrent.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Sony Pictures has opened the bidding for streaming rights to Seinfeld. One party apparently not taking part is Netflix, leaving the show about nothing to Amazon, Hulu or Yahoo. While Netflix paid a reported $500k+ per episode for four years of Friends, the length of the agreement for Seinfeld is still in question. The streaming competition has heated up considerably over the last year or so, and if the usual people in a position to know are right, we'll find out who's willing to step up to the table on this one in the next few weeks.

The hacking of Sony Pictures may not have stopped The Interview from being released, but now the Deadline reports the studio has announced co-chairman Amy Pascal will step down. Pascal has been with the company since the 80s when it was just Columbia Pictures, and her profile notes Sony had 95 movies hit #1 since 2000 under her leadership. In November news broke that Sony Pictures had suffered a crippling hack, disabling computers and locking employees out of the network for days, and what followed got even worse as information leaked out in bunches.

Good news, die-hard aficionados of movies on film: those reels will stick around for a while yet. Kodak has put the finishing touches on a deal with the six big Hollywood studios (Disney, Fox, NBC, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.) that will maintain a steady supply of film for movie and TV directors that want to keep using the classic format. The exact terms aren't public, but it wouldn't be surprising if Kodak had the studios over a barrel. When high-profile directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino virtually insist on film, it's hard to say "no" -- you may as well be telling them to take a hike if you make them go digital. This pact won't stop the gradual death of film in theaters, of course, but creative types can take comfort in knowing that celluloid's hard-to-replicate qualities aren't going away any time soon.

As promised, the movie Kim Jong Un preferred you didn't see is now available if you have a Netflix subscription (and an account in US or Canada). Whether or not watching The Interview is a good idea is still a matter of taste/importance, but at this point it really couldn't get any easier (at least until it comes to Sony's Crackle service for free ad-supported streaming at some point in the future.) Oh, and if you're looking to get Amazon Prime for $72 ($27 off the regular price, good for new or existing customers who send it to themselves as a "gift" today only) and/or watch Transparent for free, you can do that right now too. Have a great weekend!

Whether or not you believe that North Korea hacked Sony Pictures, one thing is becoming apparent: whoever's responsible knew what they were doing. Sources for Recodeunderstand that the perpetrators took advantage of a zero-day exploit, or a software security hole that hadn't been patched yet. The details of just what this attack involved are still under close guard, but it suggests that Sony had no surefire way to protect itself. Also, it hints that the culprits had a lot of skill, a lot of money or both. Zero-day vulnerabilities are usually difficult to find and fetch a high price on the black market (typically between $5,000 to $250,000), so the attackers must have really wanted in.

Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography (aka the new one that doesn't star Ashton Kutcher) has been fraught with difficulties, but by the looks of it, filming has finally begun. Last Friday, CNET caught a glimpse of the film crew prepping the garage at Jobs' old home, which is known for being Apple's birthplace... even if Wozniak admitted that it was just "a bit of a myth." The house is somewhere in Los Altos and is just one of film's locations around California, including several spots in Silicon Valley, of course. This adaptation went through the wringer since Sony snapped up the book's rights in 2011, as proven by the emails found among the gigabytes of data leaked by Sony Pictures' hackers late last year.

Happy New Year, folks! To celebrate the start of 2015, we rounded up all stories that helped make the past 365 days so memorable -- and they're just a click away. Head on down to the gallery below for the stories that defined 2014 and more, including The Interview's aftermath, why sitting will kill you and Google's plan for Fiber under Title II. You know you want to.

According to a press release that just hit the Treasury Department's website, President Barack Obama has issued an executive order that calls for even more restrictive sanctions on North Korea for its role in the massive hack attack on Sony Pictures late last year. In his words, the new financial clampdown is because of North Korea's "destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December."

"Today's actions are driven by our commitment to hold North Korea accountable for its destructive and destabilizing conduct," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement. "Even as the FBI continues its investigation into the cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, these steps underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend U.S. businesses and citizens, and to respond to attempts to undermine our values or threaten the national security of the United States."

Sony's once-forbiddenThe Interview is now seemingly ubiquitous, but there's one place where you can't get it: North Korea, the country that inspired the movie (and allegedly, the hacking campaign) in the first place. If defector and activist Park Sang-hak has his way, though, North Koreans will see that movie whether or not their government approves. Park plans to use balloons to airdrop 100,000 copies of the comedy (both on DVD and USB drives) in the country starting in late January. In theory, North Koreans will have second thoughts about Kim Jong-un's rule once they see him as less than perfect -- and if you've seen the movie, you know how eagerly it knocks Kim off his pedestal.

In the space of a few days, Sony Pictures' The Interview has gone from unreleased to impossible to avoid. Cable video on-demand operator inDemand has added the movie to its roster, so for $5.99, pretty much anyone with pay-TV service can rent it right now instead of needing one of Google's video services, Xbox or iTunes. It's also popped up on WalMart's video service Vudu in the past day, is available via DirecTV, and according to Variety, as of Friday the number of theaters where its playing will grow to 580, compared to 331 on Christmas Day. If you're still on the fence about viewing you can use our opinion or that of others, but the movie that couldn't be stopped by North Korea (and/or company insiders) has already reportedly brought Sony $15 million through its unconventional release.

The Guardians of Peace didn't just threaten Sony Pictures and theaters that planned to show The Interview; it also shook its fist at the press, too. The Intercept has obtained an FBI alert noting that the group implied threats against a "news media organization" on December 20th. While the bulletin doesn't name the company, The Desk's Matthew Keys has copies of the Pastebin-based messages (since removed) showing that CNN was the target. The GOP sarcastically complimented CNN on its "investigation" of the hacking group and linked a video calling the TV network an idiot, but didn't warn of any specific consequences.

When Sony Pictures' computers were hacked on Thanksgiving, its employees were forced to use older technologies to keep things running, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Staff relayed details about the hack from one person to another via phone, and had to haul in old machines to issue physical checks instead of transferring salaries through bank deposit. Sony execs also reverted to old BlackBerry company phones -- as they can send and receive emails through their own servers. These reports don't only shed light on what happened (and what continues to happen) behind the scenes at Sony, they also give us a glimpse at how the investigation was handled.

Did North Korea's government hack Sony Pictures? Though the United States government and FBI say yes, a growing chorus of detractors is pushing back on that claim. And the FBI is apparently listening: one firm, Norse, met with the FBI this past Monday to present its own claim that a group of six people were responsible. Moreover, at least one of those six is said to be an ex-Sony employee, reports Politico.

Norse says its been looking into the attack on Sony Pictures since before Thanksgiving, and it presented the results of that research to the FBI yesterday. For its part, the FBI is sticking to its story -- at least for now. "The FBI has concluded the Government of North Korea is responsible for the theft and destruction of data on the network of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Attribution to North Korea is based on intelligence from the FBI, the U.S. intelligence community, DHS [Department of Homeland Security], foreign partners and the private sector," an FBI statement provided to media reads.

After a very public admonition by President Barack Obama, Sony Pictures released The Interview to Google Play, YouTube, the PlayStation and Xbox stores and now iTunes, to say nothing of over 300 independent theaters across the United States in time for Christmas. Despite the risks and the technical challenges involved, Sony did it. It made good on its word. Now that we're past the big holiday weekend, though, let's take a moment to step back and look at The Interview's aftermath as it stands.

There was a ton of hoopla about Sony releasing The Interview through internet services before it even hit theaters, but how much did this not-entirely-intentional experiment in online distribution pan out? Quite well, if you ask Sony. It just revealed that the movie racked up $15 million in digital rentals and sales (spread across 2 million customers) between its Wednesday release and Saturday, making the North Korea-themed comedy the studio's "#1 online film of all time" within a matter of days. The company isn't breaking down numbers by service, but Recode's sources claim that the "vast majority" of business came from Google Play and YouTube. Sorry, Xbox Video.

So you resisted the pressure to watch The Interview the second it became available, and you're not willing to rely on one review to decide whether it's really worth a download or theater trip just to stick it to hackers. No worries -- we've rounded up some of the more prominent reviews to give you a sense of whether or not the North Korean adventures of Franco and Rogen are any good. You may already have a sense of how well this over-the-top comedy fares, but don't be too quick to judge. You might find a few reasons to shell out some cash (or at least wait for that rumored Netflix release) to see The Interview, even if it's far from a cinematic masterpiece.

The Sony Pictures hack and its resulting fallout may have caught many people by surprise, but not the FBI -- it apparently suspected for months that something like this might happen. The Intercept has obtained a December 2013 agency report warning that it was just a matter of time before a US company faced a "data-destruction attack" like the one that hit Sony, where malware deletes enough data to render systems unusable. The alert was meant for "critical infrastructure" organizations (like energy providers) and never reached Sony, but the scenario was apparently very similar to what the company would face a year later. Intercept's tipsters even believe that Sony could have avoided a lot of the resulting damage if it had been aware of the report and heeded its advice on defending against hacks of this nature.

Sure, Sony may be defying hackers' threats by letting independent theaters screen The Interview, but you might not live close enough to watch the flick. What if you want to see it online? You might get that chance. Sources for both CNN and Recode claim that Google has "tentatively agreed" to distribute the movie online in rental form, both through Play Movies and YouTube; Sony would also stream the movie through its own website. There's a possibility that the Google deal will fall apart (this happened with iTunes, apparently), since distributors are reportedly worried that they'll face retaliatory hacks. If an agreement comes together, though, it would represent an important milestone -- it's not often that you see a major studio movie launch both online and in theaters at the same time. We've reached out to Google for details, and we'll let you know if there's anything official.

This past month has been a whirlwind of strife for Sony Pictures, but things are finally starting to look up. In fact, the studio finally announced that The Interview will be released on Christmas day. Need some more? Click the gallery below for the rest of our juiciest news highlights from the past 24 hours.

Sony Pictures claimed it couldn't premiere The Interview after major theater chains pulled out due to threats, but independent operators (and the president) have successfully called it out. Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League tweeted that Sony has authorized screenings of the now must-see film, and you can expect to see Christmas Day shows available within the hour. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the Plaza Atlanta theater has also stated it will have showings on Thursday, although Sony Pictures has yet to comment publicly. According to LA Times reporter Joe Bel Bruno Sony Pictures has confirmed the plan, and indie theaters "are lining up" to show North Korea's least-favorite movie while CEO Michael Lynton is trying to get the widest release possible. Citing anonymous sources, several outlets have reported the plans include a video-on-demand release, and will be announced publicly later today.

Update: Sony Pictures has released a statement confirming a "limited theatrical release" on Thursday, but so far has not provided a list of theaters where the movie will be shown, or if any video-on-demand release is a part of the plan. According to Lynton the studio never gave up on releasing the movie, and "we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience." President Barack Obama has chimed in again, with a statement applauding the decision. Now we're faced with the toughest question of all: Did we actually want to see this movie?

Update 2: The movie will be released online! At 1PM ET today on YouTube, Xbox and Sony's website. You can get all the details here, but if you prefer the theatrical experience a list of theaters is posted right here.

If you were worried that the US government would see the Sony Pictures hack as grievous enough to prompt a larger conflict with North Korea, you can relax. President Obama tellsCNN that he doesn't see the digital assault as an "act of war" -- it was a serious instance of "cybervandalism," but that's it. He still isn't giving any clues as to what the previously mentioned proportional response will be, but the remarks suggest that it won't involve an especially damaging retaliatory hack or any real-world weaponry. If leaks are correct, the White House may be more interested in stopping future attacks by North Korea than launching one of its own.

It's been a busy week, folks: We spoke with Seahawks quarterback Russel Wilson about how the NFL uses the Surface Pro 2, interviewed RuPaul about "gaymers," learned that North Korea was the source of the Sony Pictures hack, and more. So sit back, relax and click on the gallery below. You know you want to.

Apparently, the US is willing to recruit any ally it can get in its digital battles -- including countries that are frequently its adversaries. Sources for both the Associated Press and the New York Times claim that American officials have asked China to implement a block that would "cripple" North Korea's ability to launch cyberattacks like the one that hobbled Sony Pictures. Unfortunately, this request may be more than a little optimistic. China reportedly agrees that the attacks aren't cool, but it hasn't promised help. It doesn't exactly have much of an incentive to lend a hand when it's frequently engaged in cyberwarfare with the US.